Peloton Demonstrates Truck Platooning in California

Sacramento, CA – Senior transportation officials from several California state agencies and the California legislature participated in a truck platooning demo held by Peloton Technology outside of Sacramento, CA today. Peloton CEO Josh Switkes, VP Engineering Chuck Price, and VP External Affairs Steve Boyd were on hand to explain the safety and fuel savings benefits of the Peloton system to members of the California Highway Patrol (CHP), Department of Transportation (CalTrans), Energy Commission (CEC), Air Resources Board (CARB), Senate, and Assembly.

The demo was held on California Highway 505 outside of Sacramento and supported by CHP Woodland Area Command. The California Highway Patrol has identified reducing “fatalities and serious injuries within CHP jurisdiction” and reducing “commercial motor vehicle-involved collisions within CHP jurisdiction” as objectives 1A and 1B of the 2015-2019 CHP Strategic Plan. Peloton’s truck platooning system enhances the safety of each individual truck, whether or not in platoon, by requiring each truck to be equipped with a state of the art collision mitigation system and providing the driver with over-the-horizon alerts to changing conditions ahead.

“The California Highway Patrol’s goals to reduce fatalities, injuries, and commercial vehicle collisions fit strongly with the enhanced safety benefits of truck platooning systems. Giving drivers better information about hazardous conditions, and making sure radar-based collision mitigation systems are always looking down the road to help the driver react, can save lives and reduce crashes,” said Steve Boyd. “California agencies have been great partners in exploring how to realize the public benefits of truck platooning quickly and safely. We look forward to our ongoing work with California’s transportation leaders.”

In addition to safety benefits, truck platooning can improve fuel efficiency by 7.5% or more across both trucks in a two-truck platoon. Accessing these savings can be a key factor in enabling fleets to adopt higher cost advanced safety systems such as radar-based collision mitigation, lane departure warning, blind spot detection, and air disc brakes. Peloton continues to work with California and other state partners to lay the foundation for safe and rapid deployment of truck platooning to fleets in the future.